David Coulthard's best result of the season proved a disappointment for the Scot in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim yesterday.

Coulthard challenged for a podium place throughout before having to settle for fourth in a race won by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.

Coulthard believes he could have finished higher had his luck been better, with his McLaren car finishing the race looking rather second-hand.

His rear wing was damaged when Rubens Barrichello rammed him on the opening lap and then his front wing suffered a similar fate after Coulthard ran over debris from team-mate Kimi Raikkonen's accident.

That hampered the handling of Coulthard's car.

Afterwards he said: "I wanted to be on the podium in this race and early on I felt I had a chance to do that.

"But I had some damage from the Barrichello incident on the first lap and then I hit the debris from Kimi's car so my wing was broken. With all these incidents it made my car a bit difficult.

"I hoped for more but I guess we can say it is similar to where we were at Magny Cours in France. We just need to keep developing the package for future races.

"The first set of tyres were very good, the balance was good and then once I hit the debris from Kimi and I changed tyres I struggled with understeer. I had expected this track would have oversteer."

Coulthard knew little of his run-in with Barrichello, which ended with the Ferrari driver losing his nose cone and ending his hopes of a points finish.

"He hit the back of me," Coulthard said. "I don't know whether he felt I braked too early for the corner or whether he braked too late.

"As I went into the corner I felt the hit and got on the radio and asked the team to check the rear wing. It broke the end plate but was okay otherwise."

Coulthard was McLaren's only points scorer after Raikkonen's challenge for victory ended when part of his rear wing fell off, plunging the Finn into a tyre barrier.

He was clearly angry at the manner of his retirement, flinging his steering wheel back in the car and trudging back to the pits.